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It Gets Worse: More Shocking Details About DOJ Spying on Fox News

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WASHINGTON, DC – MAY 20: Security personnel guard one of the entrances as activists march to the U.S. Justice Department during a protest May 20, 2013 in Washington, DC. Homeowners and activists from Home Defenders League and Occupy Homes joined the protest to demand that Attorney General Eric Holder ‘hold Wall Street Banks that ravaged America’s economy accountable.’ Credit: Getty Images

The U.S. Department of Justice is currently in damage control mode after it surfaced that the DOJ obtained Fox News reporter James Rosen’s personal and work phone records, Google emails and tracked his movements to and from the State Department.

But that’s not all.

On Tuesday night, Fox News’ Bret Baier reported that the DOJ also obtained the phone records of Rosen’s parents. Yes, his parents. This has not yet been verified by administration officials.

Additionally, the Justice Department obtained the phone records for at least five different numbers used by Fox News as a part of its leak investigation, the New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza reports. Rosen was investigated for his reporting on North Korea’s nuclear program.

U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen, who directed the leak investigation into Rosen, seized the records for at least 30 different phone lines, Lizza writes.Drop

Two of the numbers begin with area code 202 and the exchange 456, which, according to current and former Administration officials, are used exclusively by the White House. (The phone number for the White House switchboard is (202) 456-1414.)

At least five other numbers targeted by the government include the area code 202 and the exchange 824. The phone number for the Fox News Washington bureau, which is publicly available, is (202) 824-0001. Rosen’s work phone number at Fox News begins with the same area code and exchange.

This is all of course on top of the Obama administration’s even wider probe of the Associated Press.

The president and chief executive officer of the AP on Sunday called the government’s secret seizure of two months of reporters’ phone records “unconstitutional” and said the news cooperative had not ruled out legal action against the Justice Department.

Gary Pruitt, in his first television interviews since it was revealed the Justice Department subpoenaed phone records of AP reporters and editors, said the move already has had a chilling effect on journalism. Pruitt said the seizure has made sources less willing to talk to AP journalists and, in the long term, could limit Americans’ information from all news outlets.

Although the Justice Department has not explained why it sought phone records from the AP, Pruitt pointed to a May 7, 2012, story that disclosed details of a successful CIA operation in Yemen to stop an airliner bomb plot around the one-year anniversary of the May 2, 2011, killing of Osama bin Laden.

The AP delayed publication of that story at the request of government officials who said it would jeopardize national security.